Migration Stopovers of Mule Deer in the Paunsaugunt Plateau Herd in Utah

The Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah is home to a prolific mule deer herd numbering around 5,200 individuals in 2019. In early October, these mule deer begin their migration from the Plateau traveling south distances up to 78 miles to winter range in the Buckskin Mountains near the Utah-Arizona border. Approximately 20-30% of the Paunsaugunt Plateau herd reside in northern Arizona during the winter, sharing winter range also used by deer from the Kaibab Plateau herd. Beginning in late April, deer reverse their migration to summer range on the Plateau. The most significant challenge for these deer is US Highway 89 which bisects this migration corridor and winter range, where deer-vehicle collisions have historically been a problem. In 2012, the Utah Department of Transportation and partners placed 12.5 miles of wildlife exclusion fence between existing and new crossing structures to reduce deer-vehicle collisions and provide connectivity for deer and other wildlife across the highway. These mitigation measures have been a tremendous success, facilitating over 78,600 successful mule deer crossings and a 77% crossing success rate. These data provide the location of migration stopovers for Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) from the Paunsaugunt Plateau Herd in Utah. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 117 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 54 adult mule deer comprising GPS locations collected every 2 hours.

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